Undaunted
by hypaalicious
Summary: Going to sleep in the Celsius' cabin and waking up in a strange new world was just the beginning of the story Rikku never dreamed would be hers.


**A/N:** I don't know what I'm doing with this, let's get this straight right now. I write fanfiction, and I am familiar overall with how to write a (fairly) good story, but I've never written and have never read FFX-2 fiction. In fact, I usually don't read ANY Final Fantasy fanfiction unless it's just that damn intriguing, and even then I'd have to be recommended by a trusted friend to give it a shot. But all of that aside, it didn't stop me from beginning a story that I have no real clear clue about where it's going or how it's going to finish. AU is the least of everyone's worries right now.

But that's the excitement of it all, isn't it?

The original idea is based off of a loose plotline for an RPG I never really got the chance to do more than apply for, since the journaling site it was run on decided to go down the shitter, and before that it went on a very extended hiatus before the game actually formally got started. But that idea stuck with me so much, and since I'm not much of an RPer anyway... I can still write up a mean fanfic. And even though right now I'm in the middle of writing a fic for a FFVIII fanfiction in which the corresponding prequel was LONG overdue, I've taken a chance and tested my abilities to multitask writing two fictions at once. This might fail horribly, considering my track record on just keeping ONE story in queue. But my muse kicked me in the ovaries enough to make me write this, otherwise I could think of nothing else. And I half hate it, half love it when that happens.

Rating might change in the future, seeing as though I don't exactly know what it is I'm going for at the moment. So might the category, and maybe even the summary. AND, having some sort of online Al Bhed translator on hand might be helpful as well for some parts. So... if you decide to continue to give it a shot, I admire your bravery (and even more so appreciate your opinions if you have any), and I will shut the hell up now to let you read what I've spent way too long babbling about.

* * *

Rikku huffed in complete and utter exasperation before shaking her head in a dismissive manner and walking away. Her limit for dealing with his crap had been reached for the day.

"Rikku, tuh'd oui fymg yfyo vnus ouin Vydran mega dryd!" Cid's voice echoed down the colorfully painted walls of the Celsius, enticing a roll of the eyes and a snort from the blonde-haired Al Bhed beauty. She continued to ignore any further proclamations from the leader of her people who was also her father as she continued her pace to the elevator. He never failed to annoy her with his habit of thinking he knew what was best for her, mostly because he liked to ignore the fact that she was 21 years old and knew the ropes of life well enough by now. By the time she was 15, she was unearthing ancient machina, trying to protect the Yevonite summoners from needlessly sacrificing their lives for a hopeless cause, and later embarked on the pilgrimage of a lifetime with her beloved cousin and Spira's savior, Yuna. But her life of excitement had just begun; establishing the Gullwings and traveling the world in a new light looking for spheres was something else Rikku had under her belt. She hadn't planned on inadvertently stumbling on a plot that would have destroyed Spira and eventually ended up helping to save the world again, but she supposed it was just one of the after-effects of always being by Yuna's side. Rikku didn't mind much, though - it kept life interesting, and Rikku thrived on being active.

Unfortunately, she was now at a point in her life where things were beginning to plateau. Yuna was happily settled with Tidus on Besaid, Paine was recapturing the life she never had (while apparently enjoying her new job in Luca as a freelance reporter), and Rikku... well, it pretty much consisted of traveling around Spira helping those who had limited machina knowledge. But seeing as though enough time went by to let the majority of Spirans get a handle on it themselves, there wasn't much left for Rikku to do these days except listen to Cid lecture her every now and then. It was the same thing at least every week with either her or Brother, although the worst of the screaming matches usually occurred with the latter. Brother's main problem was that he never really knew how to walk away when it was best for him, and Cid never knew when to shut up, period.

But Rikku loved her tight yet dysfunctional family. It was really all she had, now that Home was long gone and her people were busily integrating into a new Spiran society in which they had never before dreamed possible. The Gullwings were off doing their own things, and the age of sphere hunting had pretty much passed. So, of COURSE she was learning how to appreciate and cherish what she's got. But still, there were times when even the most usual events that occurred between the family were too much to bear. Especially with Cid's infallible habit of talking about a subject in which he really knew nothing about. For the most recent topic of "discussion", he had decided to lay into his daughter about the whole "Gippal Issue", as he liked to dub it.

Rikku knew he meant well, honestly. But it didn't help quell the emotions that rose within her so quickly whenever the subject came up. She was no longer 17 and content with tiptoeing around the young Machina Faction leader with a schoolgirl giggle and a blush. Well, sometimes she couldn't help a blush or two, but she had years to learn how to cover her tracks. She just didn't know how serious Gippal was about HER. They had dated a couple of times, even made out on a few occasions, but Rikku was afraid that a part of him still saw her as "Cid's little girl". Cid himself still saw her as his little girl, and that caused enough problems for the both of them. She didn't need a potential love interest thinking along the same lines.

So when Cid insisted on asking her why hadn't she and Gippal set up a marriage date while they were attempting to have a daughter-father bonding experience together while working on one of the Celsius' engines, something in her just couldn't summon up the normal amount of resolve it usually took to be a good daughter and listen attentively while nodding in agreement once or twice. He didn't know a damn thing; he COULDN'T know. Rikku was sure that a part of Cid would be pleased that Gippal wasn't spending his time trying to get into his daughter's pants, all while still insisting they become more of an item. In reality, Rikku wasn't sure how that would work, but she decided to leave her father in his irrational yet idealistic illusions and just not argue.

Of course, it didn't mean that she had to sit there and listen to it, either.

She waved at Barkeep as she walked by the bar and headed up the stairs to the row of beds on the upper level. Rikku took a moment to examine the ones that used to belong to Yuna and Paine. She used to do it more often directly following the Gullwings' mutual break up, and since then life took its own course and she went along with it. But this time, while she was feeling emotionally vulnerable, she couldn't help immersing herself in the nostalgia of the moment. The three of them had so many good times (and some bad) together. While they were still the Gullwings, she took many of those times for granted. Who could blame her? Rikku had thought they would never end, even though ALL good things eventually come to a close. There was even a small period of time where they got back together to try and recapture the excitement that they once thrived on, but it almost turned out to be a gigantic failure. The good thing that had come out of that "Last Mission" was that they were all missing each other horribly and didn't know how to express it properly. Rikku still blamed herself for most of the arguments that came up, since she was convinced that if she had just kept her big mouth shut then things might have gone smoother. But a part of her very much admitted that listening to Paine and Yuna's stories had made her incredibly jealous; she didn't have a mysterious past or a long-lost love to settle down with on a tropical island. Her life seemed the only one that was unchanged, where she was still the same old girl with the same old path ahead of her. Sure, she was pretty much famous all over Spira, and she had absolutely no shortage of friends and people that appreciated her and all that she did and tried her best to do... yet it wasn't necessarily fulfilling. All of those people she met only knew about her, they didn't KNOW her. Even her own father was too busy lecturing her to really get to know the girl behind the pretty face, the interesting clothing, and the typically hyperactive behavior.

The only people she could think of that would have been able to see beneath the surface were the people that were now off starting their new lives. Rikku smiled somewhat wistfully to herself as she sat down on a mattress, a faint squeak piping up as her weight settled on the springs. She could see it so clearly; Paine would just have to eyeball her a couple of times before bluntly saying what she knew to be the issue, which would have totally uprooted Rikku but would not have allowed her any room to run. Yuna would have calmly waited until the Al Bhed was alone and approached her gently, and Rikku would have been left with no choice but to spill her heart out to her cousin who always seemed to have the magic touch at caring for everyone.

Even though they still found some time to meet up every once in awhile when their lives permitted... she missed the trio they used to be.

As the Celsius coasted by in the skies leisurely, Rikku let herself be entranced by the large tufts of clouds that drifted by, occasionally cutting into the sun's light to filter patterns into the cabin. She was faintly aware of the tinkering from downstairs, probably signifying that Barkeep was just finishing up a load of glasses and was placing them on the shelves for later use. It would usually be around that time where Rikku would attempt to clear her mind by stepping out on the deck for some fresh air, but she really didn't want to risk running into Cid or anyone else just yet. Her mind was on high nostalgia mode, and any mention of the day's earlier discussion would probably either result in her incoherently yelling or a random breakdown filled with tears. Neither situation was one that her father considered himself well versed in handling. When Rikku was small, he was great for fixing a scraped knee, teaching her how a new machina worked and how to use it, or entertaining her with various stories that kept her wondering at night whether or not they were myths or the truth. But now, she wasn't even sure how to really approach him on anything else. Hell, he freaked out enough when Rikku started her period and began filling out, and he was a bit too cut and dry for in-depth conversations about "the good old days" unless it was about Home. She couldn't blame him, though; it wasn't his fault that it was just how he was. She certainly didn't love him any less for it.

But it didn't help the ache in her subside at times like these where she found herself questioning just where she was going with her life. She was happy... wasn't she?

"It doesn't matter." Rikku spoke out loud to herself as she plopped down back first, her golden hair spreading out in a tousled halo on the pillow. As an afterthought, she remembered she was wearing her maroon and black jumpsuit because she had been working on the engine and was most probably getting grease all over the sheets. But changing required her to move, and she felt way too lazy at the moment to do much of anything but stare at the ceiling and the fan that twirled idly. She could take care of whatever mess she made after she took a little nap.

Letting the fan blades lull her mind into unconsciousness, she slipped off into a dreamless sleep, the hum of the Celsius the only sound filtering to her ears.

------

"Eh... it's cold." Rikku muttered to herself as she rolled over, burrowing deeper into the warm comfort the blankets on her bed gave her. She didn't remember it being that chilly when she fell asleep, but she figured maybe Buddy or Brother had turned up the AC in the ship for awhile. The guys always preferred icebox temperatures on board, while Rikku was usually left to either recalibrate the temperature herself later or stand on the deck to warm up. She wondered sometimes if she was the only person on the ship that thrived off of the blistering hot temperatures she grew up with in the Bikanel Desert; she very much hated being cold.

She opened one eye as little as possible, so that the sun's rays wouldn't blind her so much through the slits of the curtains, and immediately closed it. Rikku figured she still had some time to nap before someone would make her wake up, seeing as though-

_Wait._ The windows in the cabin of the Celsius _never_ had blinds on them. And for as much as she relished crashing on them all of the time, her bed wasn't that plush and never sported a humongous white comforter to boot.

In a flash, Rikku was sitting bolt upright and taking in her surroundings with renewed fervor and panic. The room walls were an off-white accented by white borders and a white ceiling. There was a nightstand to the right of her, with a clock and other various items scattered about. Looking directly ahead of her, there was a simple dresser in the same color scheme as the rest of the room, aside a door that looked like it slid back by using an odd handle. Blinking and turning her head away from the insistent streams of light Rikku was sure only existed at that particular moment to burn out her retinas, she looked at another larger door that would most probably lead her out of the strange bedroom she was in. Unless whomever had deposited her there would be back soon to check on her. Her blood ran cold as she considered the high probability that the person was male.

_Rikku. Calm down. Breathe. Try to remember the last thing you did that might explain this. _She did develop a habit of talking to herself over the most recent years, a result of no longer having the Gullwings around to bounce her energy or ideas upon, and at that moment, she really could have used Paine's almost stoic calm and Yuna's reassuring words and presence at that moment. But, like she always did whenever she found herself slipping into nostalgia, Rikku steadied herself and took things by herself one step at a time. First, she had told herself to calm down. After she had successfully stopped hyperventilating, she racked her brain for any familiar events that might explain her current situation.

But the only thing that replayed in her head was working on the Celsius, walking away from her father, and slipping to the cabin for an impromptu nap. Everything made perfect sense until the part about her waking up HERE. Could Brother have finally concocted the prank to end all pranks and somehow moved her while she was asleep? It COULD happen; Rikku was known for her ability to sleep like the dead in many cases. But to do all of THIS, Brother would have had to generate thrice the brain cells that already existed in his questionably tattooed skull in addition to accumulating a LOT of help and discreet planning to carry it out without her finding out eventually. Since that scenario happening was just as impossible as her ending up in the foreign bed, Rikku tossed it out.

Which only left one other possibility (that didn't let her linger on the other track she had started down when she considered an unknown male and all of THOSE uncertainties); it was all a dream. A VIVID one, and probably the most realistic of the dreams she ever had in her entire Al Bhed life, but a dream nonetheless.

_A dream. I can work with that. _Feeling the tension in her body slowly flow out of her muscles, Rikku took another deep breath before pulling back the covers and shivering as the cold air in the room hit her bare legs. Looking down at herself, she realized she was wearing nothing but an oversized gray T-shirt and underwear. Well, it would have been perfectly fine if the damn room wasn't feeling like Mt. Gagazet in the fall seasons and if the beautiful yet equally frigid hardwood floor didn't shock her feet when she went to stand. Grumbling, she rubbed her eyes and swore that she'd find the control panel to turn off the air conditioning. One would figure if it were all her dream, just a commanding thought would have warmed up the room considerably. After a few attempts at this theory and the beginnings of a headache threatened to bloom, Rikku grunted and then sighed.

She'd just have to do it the old-fashioned way and find the blasted controls herself.

But, seeing as thought it seemed deceptively more difficult (probably due to her inherent laziness) to go on that hunt and pretty much decided most of her had already frozen well enough, she instead inched over to the large window and tried to peer through the slits in the vertical blinds that hung there. Eventually finding a string that pulled the blinds to the side, she stepped up to the window... and gasped.

Large buildings that reminded her vaguely of what Zanarkand used to look like, yet were too simple and somewhat quaint compared to the legendary city's grandeur, lined the opposite side of the street Rikku's room was on. Some of them were of similar uniform make, others seemed to be made out of smoothed blocks of stone that were either gray or red. She couldn't get over how SQUARE everything tended to be. In Spira, things always tended to be rounded and encompassing. She remembered Yuna telling her once that roundness was always favored in most architecture due to the never ending circle Spira was once caught in - the one the young High Summoner had finally broken all of those years ago. Although the threat of Sin was long behind the people of Spira, many habits were hard to break. But that was all that she knew; that was all anyone knew.

Rikku's eyes traveled downwards. She hadn't realized she was situated at least 5 stories from ground level until then. She examined the people that walked on tiny side paths lining a much larger path that was a darker shade than the part they were walking on. She started to frown at the strange (and oddly plain compared to the fashions outside of this odd dreamscape her mind was formulating) clothing choices before the sun's rays caught on something sleek and red coasting gracefully to a stop at a large intersection. Blinking furiously for what seemed like a very extended moment, she made her trembling fingers find the latch that allowed her to raise the bottom half of the windowpane and promptly stuck her head out to gape.

It was quite balmy outdoors, but she barely took note of that as she continued to analyze what had to be the most alien yet beautiful machina she had ever laid eyes on, excluding the Celsius that suddenly seemed like a distant memory. The paint job glistened like the water in the Oasis back in the Bikanel Desert, and the streaks of silver that made up the handles on the doors and the sides along the bottom were making her just as thirsty as anyone unfamiliar with the desert would be upon breaching the small pool of freshwater. The wheels that held the entire thing on the path were black and seemed smooth, hard and soft all at once. But when it moved... if Yevon still existed and if she had even remotely believed in that false God to begin with, Rikku would have sworn that name in vain as she watched and heard that beautiful contraption coast easily through the intersection and down the main road. As it was, she already leaned as far as she dared out of the window and settled for a few words in Al Bhed that she was sure her father would have chastised her for if he had heard her.

For the next couple of minutes, Rikku stayed in that window and stared at all of the similar machina that used the wide black path. Not all were as nice as the red one she first saw, but they intrigued her nonetheless. There were some that only ran on two of the sleek wheels and held one person, while her eyes almost bulged out of her skull when she saw a rather large machina carting many people at once. Realizing she had barely remembered to breathe or move since she came to the window, she gathered herself and moved so she was safely inside the room once more. But she couldn't make herself close the window.

As an Al Bhed, there was nothing she didn't at least instinctively known about any sort of machina. She knew that airships, for as rare as they were to come by and even harder to build up from scratch, were the smoothest form of transportation Spira had and very few people had the privilege of riding in one. For most of Spira, it was either a chocobo, a hover, or just plain old walking were the other available choices for transit. Due to the mass destruction of machina years and years ago and the accompanied exile of her people who swore by it, there was much the Al Bhed couldn't yet fine-tune in their lifelong craft. There was too much lost. Having the silly superstitions the Yevonites once had the power to religiously impose get tossed aside with the final destruction of chaos itself helped the Al Bhed community tremendously. They didn't have to hide or be cautious about their discoveries anymore, which allowed Gippal and his Machina Faction to accelerate the excavation of ancient parts and put them together into something that worked. But as for that rolling, fluid red machina outside... Rikku knew that nothing of that caliber was made without SOMEONE being around with the knowledge on how to not only build it, but to make it shine and hum and purr. The hovers she was used to have NOTHING on the grace she just saw. And as an Al Bhed, that awakened many things inside her, one emotion being a mixture of jealousy and shame that someone else had more knowledge that she did on a machina, no matter how alien it was.

A determined look settled over her face like a mask. Vivid dream that she was sure she would wake from or not, she had a new purpose; find that machina and figure out how it worked.

A violent shiver rolled through Rikku then, causing her to swear and rub her arms with her hands. _But first, I suppose I could find that control panel for the air conditioner. _She turned from the window and started to scan the room once more before she muffled a shriek at the person standing in the bedroom's doorway that looked just as scared to see her standing there as well.

Then it took her an extra couple of moments to stupidly realize that the intruder was simply a reflection of herself in the full-length mirror that was on the back of the door.

_Tispycc Rikku. Kad y kneb._

Letting her breath out slowly, she approached the mirror cautiously, as if waiting for the person on the other side to stick its tongue out at her and scream "SURPRISE!" or something equally as messed up just to make her dream all the more suited for the category of "fucked up". She also quickly realized why she hadn't immediately recognized herself in the mirror in the first place.

Her build and height and skin color were all at once the same... or similar... yet also seemed as different as everything else she woke up to thus far. She tried to put her finger on it as she studied herself over and over again, and it troubled her greatly that she could not. Rikku ran her hands over her arms and legs and even her butt and her boobs to try and confirm something or another. Everything felt as familiar as it would to any sane person who was born into the body they knew for their entire lives, yet there was still a nagging feeling of "off" that she could not place. She quickly stopped pondering herself in circles since it was sure it would literally drive her insane. Going insane, even in a dream, wasn't on this Al Bhed's list of things to do.

_Maybe it's not a dream._

Rikku physically shook her head hard at that little voice that had decided to toss its two cents in from the back of her mind. When she did so, she was both pleased and shocked that she could pinpoint SOMETHING in her reflection that was very inconsistent with how she normally knew herself to look like. Her hair, while as long and full as it should have been, wasn't the right shade of blonde. Like all Al Bhed, she was blessed with bright honey colored strands that had matched the many granules of sand that spanned the entirety of the Bikanel Desert. But when she saw it as it was in the mirror, it was a much lighter and softer blonde that seemed horrifically muted compared to what it should have been. Rikku wasn't sure she liked it, despite how well it complimented her tanned skin tone. But she was amused by the random sparse streaks of black that were braided into selected sections of her head, contrasting further. It wasn't anything Rikku would have thought of doing herself, since the Al Bhed had traditionally as much pride in their hair as they did with their trademark-

She pressed her nose against the cool glass before realizing that she couldn't walk forward anymore, and stepped back once.

All of the "adjustments", whether they were ones that Rikku noticeably discovered or not, drew extra attention to the emerald gems that were her eyes. They were large and framed by long lashes around almond-shaped lids that had always given her an exotic look. But even that small bit of familiarity didn't comfort her.

The spiral pupils - the one thing that was honored by the Al Bhed and was once shunned by the rest of Spira as a sign of a tainted race, yet was always loved by her and was probably the only vice Rikku had ever allowed herself to openly flaunt and cherish - were absent in those green pools that stared right back at her in undisguised horror.

She barely had time to register that the room was spinning before she collapsed unceremoniously to the floor in a dead faint.


End file.
